Many know her as the Pre Calculus Honors and AP Statistics teacher here at Bishop Manogue Catholic High school, but Ms. Thomas is more than just your average, stereotypical math teacher.
Born and raised with her brother here in Reno, Nevada, Ms. Thomas attended Reno High School. She was on the swim team and did martial arts in which she is now a second degree black belt. At home, her family always had dogs around. Currently, she owns a rottweiler and a cat.
Outside of teaching math here at Manogue, Ms. Thomas enjoys doing Pilates and watching funny movies and Real Housewives. “Trash TV!” she joked. While watching movies, Ms. Thomas said that she likes to search for Easter eggs within the movies and then be wrong about all of them. In addition to watching movies, she also loves listening to Taylor Swift. Ms. Thomas last visited the Eras Tours in March of 2023 with her fellow teachers and friends at Bishop Manogue including Mrs. Wieland (Algebra II Honors), Mrs. Ledesma-Smith (Honors and AP Chemistry), and Mrs. Lazarek (Geometry Honors). Ms. Thomas loves all of Taylor Swift’s albums, but her favorite ones include Reputation and Midnight. “They’re definitely up there for sure!” she exclaimed.
Along with Taylor Swift, Ms. Thomas is very passionate about being pro-women. “I am all about women in the STEM field,” she added, “women in athletes, women in academics. Just women, women, women! Go girls!!!”
Ms. Thomas loves logic centered thinking and solving puzzles. “Math is kind of logical and puzzles,” she expressed while explaining her reasons for teaching math. Because Ms. Thomas is very social and likes talking to people, she said that there was no better way of incorporating her love of puzzles and people into her work as a math teacher. “I knew that I didn’t want to sit in a cubicle and do math. I knew that I wanted something that was involved with people,” she explained.
Along with her love for math, her dedication to her students is remarkable. Ms. Thomas gets up early and comes in about an hour before school starts every morning and stays as late as possible after school to help her students. She is always willing to help and wants all of her students to succeed and learn to love math. I myself have come in multiple times following a difficult lesson, and Ms. Thomas has never failed to be there to better help my understanding.
Even though Ms. Thomas is a great help to her students, not all of them appreciate her as much as they ought to. Not only is she never not available to help out, she’s always doing it with a smile on her face. “I think a lot of people don’t know that I’m not as intimidating as I appear or I may seem.” Ms. Thomas expressed, “They think I’m really ‘in-your-face’, but I’m not like that.” As a student of hers, I can see where she’s coming from. Many students feel like math is intimidating or scary, so they automatically associate this feeling with their teacher. But one-on-one, Ms. Thomas is extremely easy-going and loves talking with her students. She is very open about her thoughts and is not afraid to be herself. If you ever feel lonely, Ms. Thomas will brighten your day with one silly comment and her altruistic personality.
As a student in her fourth period Pre Calculus Honors class, I know that the last thing my peers are looking forward to at the end of a long block day is math class. The hour and a half could feel like it’s been dragging on all day, or your head seems like it’s starting to spin from seeing so many numbers on the board. This would be true in any other math class, but with Ms. Thomas as the teacher, she does her best to make math fun. Before class starts, she welcomes each student individually and asks them how their day has been so far. Ms. Thomas is always happy to talk with her students about their extracurricular activities and what they love to do. During notes, she is consistently energetic and intrigued by some cool connection that the current lesson has with a past one. When class is dismissed, she wishes every one of her students a great day with a bright smile on her face.
Ms. Thomas’s brilliantly quirky, approachable, and caring personality are just a few of the many beautiful qualities that she has. She never fails to add a bit of laughter to your day; I know she does to mine.
